Intrinsic Motivation During Adulthood: A Further Evaluation of the Integrative Theory of Intrinsic Motivation

A set of hypotheses derived from the integrative theory of intrinsic motivation was evaluated with a sample of 607 adults. Three adult age groups were compared with respect to two sets of variables associated with intrinsic motivation. One set of measures pertained to four predictive characteristics of intrinsic motivation: self-determination, developing competence in the form of a balance of challenges and skills, self-realization values, and engaged performance in the form of effort. The second set related to four subjective experiences associated with intrinsic motivation: interest, flow experiences, feelings of personal expressiveness, and hedonic enjoyment. A brief version of the Personally Expressive Activities Questionnaire was used to assess these variables. Significant positive associations were found for inter-relationships among the predictive characteristics, among the subjective experience variables, and between the predictive characteristics and the subjective experiences. Further, there was a cumulative impact of the predictive characteristics for their relationships with each of the subjective experiences of intrinsic motivation. These relationships held for each of the three age groups, with minimal evidence of differences in the strength of the relationships by age group. This indicates that adults, across these age groups, experience intrinsic motivation when the predictor variables are present at high levels. The findings here are compared with earlier research conducted with emerging adult college student samples.